leland announced to the world he was resigning from general motors for patriotic reasons the united states and world war i and april of 1917 started to build with dirty engines -- liberty engines. cadillac told the press -- leland told the press he had to resign from general motors because billy durant it didn't support the effort and he didn't want to divert production to the wartime material. billy durant immediately sent a telegram to leland saying prove to me that you have resigned of your own free will. he said for telegrams and he never replied. finally, again, compare this to today's media culture, finally durant went to the press directly and showed the memorandum and the signs resignation that he actually fired leland because he simply haven't followed his orders and wouldn't proceed in to get the catalog with the rest of general motors as the chairman wanted that leland went on to build liberty but the war ended but after that. they've created yet another car company in honor of the civil war the problem was first lincoln was reviewed by the press at the time as a clone of last y